Baseball Snapped By Spiders In 3-0 Loss, Colonials Collect Only Four Hits

GW Drops To Loser's Bracket After Top Two Seeds Fall In A-10 Tourney

NORWICH, CT - The Colonials were beaten by Richmond 3-0 when Spiders ace Thomas Martin held GW to a four-hit shutout while striking out 11. Three of the first four batters in GW's lineup had a hit including Anthony Raglani who extended his season-high hitting streak to nine games. Dan Sullivan, who was vying for GW's single-season wins record, got the loss after going a perfect 9-0 in his last nine starts including all eight conference games.

Martin was amazing as he pitched a complete game shutout over nine innings. He allowed only four hits and two walks while striking out 11. The junior southpaw had six consecutive strikeouts and retired 15 straight batters. He scattered his four hits, all singles over four innings and was virtually unhitable for the whole game. After suffering from injuries for much of the year he labored through 130 pitches throwing 87 of them for strikes. He faced 30 batters, only three more than the minimum possible.

Raglani had a hit in the first inning and the Colonials did not have another base runner until Joe Michalski reached on a walk in the bottom of the sixth. The Colonials never got a runner past second and only had two make it that far. Raglani extended his hitting streak to nine games with his first inning single which fell in behind the pitcher and in front of the middle infielders who converged on the ball.

Sullivan also pitched will for the Colonials but had no run support in his quest to pick up his 10th straight victory which would have also tied the single-season record for wins. He pitched seven and two thirds innings giving up three runs on seven hits and two walks with four strikeouts. Sullivan scattered the hits and give up a single run in the third, fourth and eighth innings but dropped to 10-4 on the season.

Richmond led off the third with a double by leadoff hitter Bryan Pritz who drilled a ball of the center field wall. Pritz advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored when Jim Fasano grounded out to the second baseman but earned an RBI for driving in Pritz for the first run of the game. The Spiders added a run the following inning on Josh Farkes' homer to left, his fourth of the season.

In the eighth inning Fasano snuck down a bunt to the right side with one away. He moved to second on a passed ball and stole third with two outs in the inning. David Thomas then drove him in with an RBI single to right field that dropped in front of Brad Rosenblat. Fasano's run was earned as the official scorer felt he would have at least attempted to score from second, had there not been a passed ball, since there were two outs on Thomas' single. Nate CasaGrande then entered the game for Sullivan and retired the final four batters in order striking out one to close out the game.
With the loss the Colonials (40-17) drop into the loser's bracket, while Richmond (33-22) continues on to play St. Bonaventure at noon on Friday. The two rivals have now split the four games that they have played this season. With the No. 1 seed Rhode Island losing to St. Bonaventure earlier in the day, the lower seeded Colonials will need to defeat the Fordham Rams before playing the URI Rams in the loser's bracket.